1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to soft thermoplastic elastomers (TPE) having improved resistance to oil swell and excellent resistance to compression set, a method for their preparation and their use. Furthermore, the present invention relates to cured rubber concentrates (CRC) which are used for the preparation of said thermoplastic elastomers.
A thermoplastic elastomer is generally defined as a polymer or blend of polymers that can be processed and recycled in the same way as a conventional thermoplastic material, yet has properties and performance similar to that of vulcanized rubber at service temperatures. Blends or alloys of plastic and elastomeric rubber have become increasingly important in the production of high performance thermoplastic elastomers, particularly for the replacement of thermoset rubber in various applications.
2. Description of the Related Art
Polymer blends which have a combination of both thermoplastic and elastic properties are generally obtained by combining a thermoplastic polyolefin with an elastomeric composition in a way such that the elastomer is intimately and uniformly dispersed as a discrete particulate phase within a continuous phase of the thermoplastic. Early work with vulcanized compositions is found in US-A-3 037 954 which discloses static vulcanization as well as the technique of dynamic vulcanization wherein a vulcanizable elastomer is dispersed into a resinous thermoplastic polymer and the elastomer is cured while continuously mixing and shearing the polymer blend. The resulting composition is a microgel dispersion of cured elastomer, such as butyl rubber, chlorinated butyl rubber, polybutadiene or polyisobutene in an uncured matrix of thermoplastic polymer such as polypropylene.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,160,790 discloses synergistic improvement of nylon-6 or nylon-66 impact resistance by blending, in the melt, with minor proportions of both an ethylene/acrylic acid copolymer and an ethylene/ethyl acrylate copolymer.
U.S. Pat No. 4,996,264 discloses a thermoplastic and elastomeric composition comprising a polyamide resin and a rubber component, wherein the rubber component is dispersed in the form of crosslinked particles in the polyamide resin. The rubber component is composed of a nitrile-group containing rubber and an acrylic rubber. These compositions have fracture resistance, such as heat resistance, ozone resistance and gasoline resistance.
U.S. Pat. No 5,051,478 discloses a dynamically vulcanized composition which comprises a polyolefin resin, an elastomer, and an ethylene copolymer resin such as a copolymer of ethylene and vinyl acetate or an alkyl acrylate. A process for producing the dynamically vulcanized composition is also provided, which process includes the addition of the ethylene copolymer resin after the dynamic vulcanization step. The resulting composition comprises the ethylene copolymer resin predominantly in the polyolefin resin phase. The compositions have improved surface appearance and softness, but a bad resistance to oil swell.
However, thermoplastic elastomers based on ethylene acrylic rubber (EAR-Vamac) and engineering resins are almost impossible to prepare with the existing processing equipment. When polyamide (PA) is used, there is an important increase in torque and temperature when adding the curative which cannot be controlled while processing. When polyester or polyphenylene ether (PPO) or polycarbonate (PC) are used, there are side reactions between the conventional curatives recommended for the rubber and the plastic phase which do not produce a material which can be adequately injection moulded or extruded into a finished part. When the curative does not interact with the plastic phase, the properties are acceptable but it is impossible to achieve low compression set and oil resistance. Attempts have been made to overcome this problem and try to avoid these undesirable reactions between the plastic phase and the curative. For example, the introduction of the curative as a master batch in rubber did not show significant improvement in fabricability. The introduction of some rubber without cure site in place of the curable one to act as a barrier between the plastic phase and the curing rubber gave worse properties and did not improve the process.
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide soft thermoplastic elastomer materials which would give good resistance to oil swell and excellent resistance to compression set. Furthermore these materials should still have a high elongation and/or tensile strength at break.